Attorney Genevieve Zimmerman helped secure an $18,468,074.36 jury verdict on behalf of a man who suffered catastrophic injuries after his 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee unexpectedly rolled backward and ran over him.
The incident occurred when the plaintiff stopped at a gas station and believed he had placed his vehicle in park before getting out. Instead, the Jeep began rolling backward, trapping and crushing his left leg. The injuries were so severe that his leg ultimately had to be amputated, permanently changing nearly every aspect of his daily life.
The case focused on a gear shifter design used in certain Jeep and Chrysler vehicles that had been linked to driver confusion about whether a vehicle was actually in park. According to evidence presented at trial, concerns about the design existed even before the vehicle went into production. Despite those concerns, the vehicles remained on the road, and more than 800,000 were eventually recalled. The plaintiff never received notice that his vehicle was subject to the recall.
Attorneys for the plaintiff argued that the vehicle’s design created an unreasonable safety risk and that drivers were not adequately warned about the danger. The case also highlighted evidence that the manufacturer was aware of problems associated with the gear shifter years before the plaintiff’s injury occurred.
After hearing the evidence, the jury deliberated for approximately six hours before unanimously finding that the Jeep Grand Cherokee was defectively designed and that FCA US LLC failed to provide adequate warnings about the risk. The jury returned a verdict of more than $18.4 million to compensate the plaintiff and his family.
What should have been a routine stop became a life-changing tragedy. The jury’s verdict recognized the enormous physical, emotional, and financial toll of the injury, while holding the manufacturer accountable for a defect that never should have put drivers at risk in the first place.